The Opium War was the beginning of our country's recent history, and although it was full of twists and turns, it symbolized a step towards modernity.
Under the leadership of the Qing Dynasty, China played the role of a loser in this war: the Opium War, the Second Opium War, the First Sino-Japanese War, and even the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, each of which witnessed the intensification of the national crisis.
In contrast, Japanese imperialism invaded China again in 1931, and when a full-scale war broke out in 1937, although China made concerted efforts to defend itself against foreign enemies, we were in a passive situation due to the disparity in military strength.
A year later, the victory at Wanjialing boosted the morale of the entire army, and the local Japanese army was almost completely annihilated, recording their crushing defeat. It is known as the three major victories of the Anti-Japanese War together with the great victory of Pingxingguan and Taierzhuang.
So what kind of blow did the Japanese army suffer in the victory of Wanjialing? At that time, Japan's plans of aggression against China had been planned for a long time, as evidenced by the September 18 Incident in 1931.
However, due to Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance, not only did the three northeastern provinces fall, but also made the Japanese army even more arrogant.
In 1937, the Japanese side launched the July 7 Incident and the August 13 Incident successively, and put forward a plan to destroy China in three months. The Japanese army's arrogant behavior was entirely because they saw the performance of the squadron in the first two incidents.
Caught off guard, the battle for the defense of Shanghai began. In this battle, although our defenders resisted valiantly, due to the superiority of Japanese naval and air support, they were ultimately unable to withstand the enemy's attack, and Shanghai fell.
The fall of Shanghai posed a direct threat to Nanjing, and due to the negligence of the strategic transfer and the emptiness of Nanjing's national defense, the defense of Nanjing had not really begun, and the people decided to move the personnel of important organs to Chongqing.
The loss of Nanjing made the city of Nanjing a purgatory on earth. The two defeats in the early stages of the war severely undermined the self-confidence of the Chinese people, especially after Japan put forward a plan to destroy China in three months, and many people felt gloomy and felt that the country was in a dangerous situation.
At that time, China urgently needed a victorious war to boost the confidence of the people of the whole country.
On the eve of the imminent victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the heat of the struggle had reached its peak, and many patriots were running ceaselessly for the cause of resistance against Japan. On December 12, 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched a "military admonition" in Xi'an, successfully detained Chiang Kai-shek, and called on him to abandon the civil war and jointly fight against foreign enemies.
At the same time, they also issued a telegram on the eight-point proposal for national salvation, which received a positive response and support from the party led by the Communist Party of China and the party.
After learning that Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng wanted to resolve the incident peacefully and did not want to harm Chiang Kai-shek, Nanjing ** sent Song Ziwen and Song Meiling to Xi'an for negotiations.
Under the active mediation of *** and others, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to accept a peaceful solution that included six conditions, including the cessation of the civil war and the joint resistance against Japan. In the end, the Xi'an Incident was peacefully resolved on December 25, 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was released back to Nanjing, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again moved towards the road of cooperation.
During this period, the Soviet side provided support and guidance to the anti-Japanese forces in our country. After the Battle of Xuzhou in the first half of 1938, the Soviet side judged that the next target of the Japanese army was Hankow, and at the same time reminded China to take defensive measures.
The Soviets warned Japan of a possible attack on Hankow through Zhengzhou and along this railway line, using the strength of its Hanoi fleet to adopt a two-front offensive strategy by land and water. Having learned of this, the USSR sent specialists to redeploy the squadron.
They particularly emphasized the strategic importance of the Nanxun Railway. As the main transportation route in Jiangxi, De'an is a key area that plays a connecting role and has become the focus of contention between China and Japan.
As part of the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Wanjialing demonstrated China's bravery and determination in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In October 1938, in the face of the Japanese attack, our army had already prepared and successfully sent Xue Yue as the commander-in-chief to establish a defensive line against the Japanese army.
Similarly, the Japanese side also sent Commander-in-Chief Okamura Ninji to command the Eleventh Army, and the two sides engaged in a fierce frontal war. However, the situation in this battle was different from the previous ones, and Okamura Ninji was even surprised by this.
This was a rare victory in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which showed the bravery and resourcefulness of our army, which was admirable.
He did not realize that the Chinese defenders had already made thorough arrangements for the battle, so he was very confused by the stalemate and the situation that could not be attacked for a long time, and even quickly lost patience and took advantage of air superiority to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of our position.
The Japanese soon discovered that there was a gap in the defenders between the two railways of our country and decided to take a risk and sent the 106th Division to forcibly insert through this gap, about 20,000 or so.
In addition, they also carried individual rations and attempted to carry out a sneak attack on the rear of our army, but this move was seen through by Xue Yue, who tried to insert between the two main forces of our army, which was undoubtedly a very dangerous move.
Xue Yue immediately asked the leaders for instructions, and at the same time as the enemy infiltrated, he gathered twelve divisions of our army to closely surround the Japanese army. By the time Gangcun Ningji reacted, it was already too late.
Okamura Ninji tried to make the troops turn sharply to the north, but was once again cut off by our troops, and in a state of panic, he could only turn to air support, but due to the constraints of the terrain, he still could not get out of the predicament.
Five days later, half of the encircled 106th Division had been lost, and the remaining troops had run out of ammunition and food, so they could only rely on airdrops to replenish them, and there was a danger of annihilation at any time.
In an emergency, the commander-in-chief of Central China personally led the army to rescue and mobilized a large number of reserves, but to no avail. On the seventh day of encircling the enemy, our army launched a final offensive and successfully inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, resulting in heavy losses among the Japanese rank-and-file officers, and the division commander even had suicidal thoughts.
The next day, Xue Yue received an order from Chiang Kai-shek to annihilate the Japanese army, so he immediately formed a death squad to prepare to break through the Japanese defense.
In a fierce battle that lasted for a day and a night, the Japanese 106th Division was completely annihilated, and only a few hundred remnants and Junrokuro Matsuura fled. The victory in this war has made the Chinese people rejoice and shocked, but also shocked the international community.
From subsequent descriptions and archival records, we can see the heavy losses of the Japanese army in this war.
We completely annihilated the enemy, and the leader of the enemy, Matsuura, only escaped, and the corpses on the battlefield were piled up, and the blood of the enemy flowed between the mountains and streams. The Japanese side also recognized the results of this battle and called it the "Wanjialing Disaster".
In the Battle of Wanjialing, the losses of the Japanese 106th Division were astonishing, equivalent to more than twice the losses of the Japanese army in more than two months on the line from Jiujiang to De'an. This was the only battle in which the squadron completely annihilated the entire Japanese division in the defensive stage of the Anti-Japanese War, and it was also an unprecedented victory in the history of the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation.
According to the Japanese combat report, in the battle, the Japanese 106th Division lost 3,300 casualties, 4,000 were wounded, and 9,000 were hospitalized due to illness.
The Japanese army's so-called "hospitalization due to illness" seems somewhat suspicious, perhaps it is just that they stated the death toll as hospitalization in order to save face**. This statement is roughly consistent with the statistics of the Japanese army in China.
They claimed that the shells on Lushan fell like rain and posed a serious threat to the Japanese army, causing a large number of personnel**. Even, they also quoted the classic poem in the history of our country, "I don't know the true face of Lushan", and regarded Lushan as a "resort" in China.
Although the Japanese elite troops suffered heavy artillery fire in the Battle of Wanjialing and the stubborn resistance of the squadron, the battle continued. The report notes that the prospects for war are not optimistic and may affect family reunions.
However, history has proven that the ** of this report is correct. The Battle of Wanjialing was a great victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and for the squadron in the strategic defense stage, every victory gave us the hope of victory and strengthened our will to war.